WASHINGTON — The U.S. House on Wednesday approved a bill championed by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis that would force government agencies to get a warrant to search emails older than six months and stored on third-party servers, such as gmail.

More than 300 members of the House co-sponsored the measure, which passed by unanimous vote. Its purpose is to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which did not address warrants for emails older than six months.

“This bill will protect people who have Google, Yahoo or other email accounts and make sure that the government can’t warrantlessly search old emails,” said Polis, D-Boulder, in prepared remarks. “Updating the law to align the digital and the physical world has taken too long, but today is a major step forward.”

The next step in the legislative process is getting the bill through the Senate, where it already has attracted bipartisan support. A companion measure has nearly 30 co-sponsors, including U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo.

Colorado lawmakers have a tight beam to walk on the issue of alcohol, as some legislators work on a compromise to allow hard liquor, wine and full-strength beer in grocery stores. The way it is now you can’t get anything harder than watered-down 3.2 percent beer outside of liquor and wine stores, over dinner at a restaurant or down at the local watering hole.

It’s a tricky path partly because it’s an election year. On one hand, drinking voters probably like convenience, possibly more selection and potentially a better price from the big-box retailers, where they could pick up a $5 bottle of Wild Irish Rose alongside Ring Dings and Pepsi. On the other hand, thousands of jobs at liquor stores and craft breweries could be at stake, and there’s a firm allegiance to small businesses in this state. Candidates should choose their words wisely.

This boozy quagmire is not new to politics or me. Before coming to Colorado in 2002, I covered politics and civil rights in Mississippi. In a state known for traditions, good and bad, one of the best was the way the Magnolia State closed its legislative session. Rep. Steve Holland breathed new life into the ghost of Soggy Sweat.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock speaks to supporters after winning a second term in the May 5, 2011, election. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

For all the controversy surrounding big flood-control projects proposed in northeast Denver, one voice has been quiet on the subject in recent months — that of Mayor Michael Hancock.

Opponents have questioned the scope of the projects, for which the estimated cost recently grew to $267 million to $298 million. They’ve challenged the details, including plans to create a detention area on City Park Golf Course, and have threatened to sue to stop the plans. Most of all, critics have seized on connections between the city flood projects and the state’s Interstate 70 expansion plan, suggesting officials have misrepresented the need in neighborhoods and the benefits they would receive to mask I-70 as the real impetus.

“I think one of the things that we’ve got to always remember is that when you look across the country and these kind of projects come up, whether they’re in Boston or in L.A. or whatever, there’s always controversy,” Hancock said. “The key is for us to stay at the table and always be working through them. And how can we make each project better for everyone?”

Members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho rally on the Colorado Capitol in 2014 to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre. (File photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

Columbus Day will live on in Colorado after legislation to abolish it was voted down Monday night. Rep. Joe Salazar, a Democrat from Thornton who sponsored the bill, originally sought to have Oct. 12 renamed Indigenous People’s Day. He dropped that part of the proposal with an amendment during the committee hearing.

The four-hour debate centered on celebrating Christopher Columbus, who enslaved or slaughtered indigenous people, or recognizing Italian heritage. Dozens of Coloradans made impassioned cases for or against the proposal before the House State, Veterans and Military Committee. The committee voted 7-2 against advancing the bill.

“It’s a controversial bill because it’s about what our state stands for,” Salazar told the committee.

Prince performs at the 19th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Monday, March 15, 2004, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. The legendary performer died Thursday. (AP Photo/Wireimage.com, Kevin Mazur)

To know Gov. John Hickenlooper, even in passing, is to know the jovial man takes a lot of things very seriously. Good music is near the top of that list, so it’s no surprise he was sad about the death of Prince Thursday.

“Talk about a quintessentially unique creative spirit,” the governor told reporters at the weekly meeting in his office Thursday afternoon. “He was someone who was fearless in attacking musical genres and really going into places no one had ever gone before.

Colorado Common Cause and several other local groups say they soon may unveil a proposed ballot initiative aimed at reining in big-donor campaign contributions and creating a public financing system for Denver city elections.

“We’re at a historic point now in terms of both low faith in government and its accessibility to regular people,” says Peg Perl, senior counsel to Colorado Ethics Watch, which is among the groups working on the potential measure for city voters in November. Add to that the flood of money in last year’s municipal elections, when Mayor Michael Hancock raised more than $1.3 million and total contributions to city candidates surpassed $4 million, and Perl says the result for many voters is disillusionment.

Details for a ballot measure are still in flux, but Perl said the group could start the review process with city officials as soon as early May. After firming it up, the groups would file it with the Denver Elections Division and begin collecting petition signatures to get it on the ballot.

Colorado’s Republican Senate primary candidates will take part in a 90-minute debate held by The Denver Post at the news organization’s headquarters next month.

Robert Blaha, Ryan Frazier, Darryl Glenn, Jack Graham and Jon Keyser have agreed to participate in the debate scheduled for May 17 at 6 p.m. in The Post’s auditorium.

Hosted and moderated by The Post’s DPtv director, Molly Hughes, and myself, the debate will feature questions prepared by Post journalists and gathered from reader questions submitted in advance. (Just send me an e-mail with a subject line that notes you have a GOP Senate primary question or two. We will make use of as many reader questions as we can.)

Glenn, a commissioner from El Paso County, won his way onto the primary ballot at this month’s GOP state convention.

Blaha, a businessman who challenged U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn in the GOP House primary in 2012, Frazier, a former Aurora city councilman who challenged U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter’s re-election in 2010, Graham, the former athletic director at Colorado State University, and Keyser, a former state lawmaker, are all awaiting certification from the Colorado secretary of state in their attempt to petition onto the ballot.

Ticket information will be available soon. Denver Post subscribers will have special access.

The Post will live-stream the debate and keep the video and highlights on its website afterward.

UPDATED: Bernie Sanders supporters won Colorado’s three seats on the Democratic National Committee, ousting longtime party leaders and Hillary Clinton loyalists.

The Democratic delegates at the state convention elected Terry Tucker, Jeri Shepherd and Mike Hamrick, the party announced late Monday. Sanders supporters pushed the slate and worked to get them elected at the party confab Saturday in Loveland, though the campaign said it didn’t officially endorse them.

The selections give party outsiders a foothold in the state and national Democratic leadership amid concerns about bias toward Clinton and other establishment candidates. Sanders’ strong showing at precinct and county level party meetings helped him stack the deck at the state convention — where he won the straw poll and claimed a majority of the delegates.

But his big showing does little to help with superdelegates in the 2016 election. The new DNC members will take office the day after the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia.

He continued: “You saw in Colorado last week where the voters were left out of the process — a groundswell of support against the system.”

Manafort’s comments echo the message from Trump supporters who gathered for a rally at the Capitol on Friday. An organization called Stop the Steal helped add weight to the rally — in what appears to be its first major public event — and is working to catalog stories about potential issues with the Colorado caucus vote.

Probably not the most surprising news you’ll hear today: Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s lieutenant governor nominee, Donna Lynne, has donated to his campaigns and the Democratic Party.

The National Institute on Money in State Politics released a report Monday that indicates 86 percent of the $50,099 Lynne and her co-workers at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Permanente Colorado gave from 2000 through 2015 supported Democrats.

Lynne gave $10,050, “almost all of it to Democrats,” according to the institute.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.